REPORTER:  Amos Roberts

This is Charlotte, her parents are from the Philippines, they met in Israel after being recruited to work here. Charlotte was born in tell Tel Aviv and speaks Hebrew.  And this morning she is getting ready for school, just like any other five-year-old in Israel. But Charlotte is different, she is one of 1,200 children the Israeli government has threatened to deport, kids who were born here but have no documents to say they belong.

BINYAMIN BABAYOFF, SHAS PARTY (Translation):  They must leave with their families - being born here does not give one the right to stay.

ROTEM ILAN, FOUNDER, ‘ISRAELI CHILDREN’:  It's not like it fell from the sky and one day we found out these children are here. The government knew these children were here and they let them grow.

BINYAMIN BABAYOFF (Translation):  Goodbye, the trip is over, go back home.

Israel is changing. Historically this country has embraced immigration so long as the migrants were Jewish, but in recent years non-Jews have started to arrive in large numbers. Foreign workers who do jobs Israelis don't want to do. Some have children and the Israeli government is worried about what that means for a Jewish state.

ROTEM ILAN:  It’s a question of what moral face we want our country to have, a country that has a big enough heart and space to let these 1200 children stay and grow and live here or a country that decides to deport them?

Charlotte's parents Rhoda and Rogelio work illegally looking after the children of other Filipino migrants. They used to be employed legally caring for elderly Israelis but Temporary Work Visas are only granted under strict conditions and romantic relationships are forbidden and so is having children.

RHODA:  When my employer found out I am pregnant, when they find out I am pregnant - they fired me. So I lost my Visa – I lost everything.

Now they have a second child, a son they have called somewhat hopefully Israel.

REPORTER:  What would it be like for your daughter Charlotte if she had to go back to the Phillipines?

ROGELIO:  It's hard for her I think because she will grow up here. She don't know nothing about the Philippine.

REPORTER: Does she think of herself as an Israeli child?

ROGELIO:  Yeah, I think that. Yes, I think that. She said, I am Israeli and you are the Filipino.

But this man doesn't Charlotte is Israeli. Eli Yishai is Israel’s Interior Minister and the head of the ultra-orthodox Shas Party.   In 2009 he announced that 1,200 children of migrant workers would be deported.   

ELI YISHAI, INTERIOR MINISTER (Translation):  It pains me and shows how important it is for our government to protect the State of Israel and the Zionist project and Israel’s Jewish identity. This is our struggle, to preserve our Jewish home, our Jewish state, our Jewish project.  We don’t hate foreigners but whoever is here illegally must be sent back to his country.

Binyamin Babayoff is a member of Eli Yishai’s Shas Party and a Tel Aviv City Councillor.  He also sees these children as a threat to the Jewish state. 

BINYAMIN BABAYOFF (Translation):  The state of Israel belongs to the Jewish people, only the Jewish people – we have no other country to go to. We must preserve a Jewish majority and prevent any diluting of Jewish identity that would occur. This country belongs to us and we are the most loyal to it.

The government's decision in 2009 to deport children divided the country and sparked months of protests.

CHILD (Translation): Let me stay here, let me and my friends grow up in the place where we were born.

Israelis from across the political spectrum rallied to support the migrant workers and their children.

PROTESTOR (Translation): There are no foreigners here, there are human beings here. There are no illegals here, there are human beings here.

WOMAN:   Everyone, the immigration Police Service here, if you don't have papers, I'm sorry - they are coming to make arrests.

Even at demonstrations like this migrant workers were targeted. A group called Israeli children was formed to fight the deportations. It's founder, is a university student Rotem Ilan.

ROTEM ILAN:  It’s not just a phrase to say they are Israeli children - that’s the reality, they grew up here and were born here and speak Hebrew sometimes even better than I do. They celebrate the holidays, also sometimes more than I do, they truly are the best Israelis there are. Just one day out of the blue I heard that the immigration police are going to deport these children and families. That same second I decided to fight this decision.

The group launched a campaign to show Israelis that the 1,200 children were part of their community, growing up with their own kids. Charlotte became one of the poster girls.

ROTEM ILAN:  Really, it was very hard to think about a child that has to grow in this fear. When he grew up nobody told him “ Hey listen, you are not really part of the country”. He was born here like I was born here, he grew up here thinking and knowing that this is his country the same I did. And now the announcement that people think they don't belong. People want to deport them to places where they don't even speak the language. It was crushing.

REPORTER: To be fair the people who come know they have been given a Visa to come for a certain period of time and then they expected to leave.

ROTEM ILAN:  But we choose to bring them and we need to understand they're human beings. If someone is good enough to work for us, is also good enough to be a part of our country. We have to understand it's not working tools, it’s not robots. When you bring migrant workers there will be children.

Charlotte's mother said many parents went into hiding with their children.

RHODA:  They are going to other place to hide. Every time I told to them that me and her daddy that is illegal here. Maybe someday we are going home in the Philippines and then she asked me, "I don't like. I like here in Israel. I was born in Israel, I can stay here in Israel."

This mother says her 5-year-old daughter is also anxious about having to live in the Philippines.

MOTHER:  She told me that she cannot speak our language, Tagalog. So she is thinking somebody will understand it's her and what she is going through...

REPORTER: She likes Israeli food?

MOTHER: Yeah, she prefers Israeli food than... 

BINYAMIN BABAYOFF (Translation):  They should be told “Dad and mum worked here for a while. Time’s up, now we are going back, we are going to visit Grandpa and Grandma, we are going back to our uncles, back to our families.”   No need to traumatise the kids by telling them they are being kicked out, it is possible to explain that it’s not their country.

But at the school Charlotte attends non-Jewish children are taught that Israel is their country.

KAREN TAL, PRINCIPAL, BIALIK-ROGOZIN SCHOOL:  We are a public school, we are a secular Israeli school, we emphasise on one hand the Israeli identity…

Principal Karen Tal is giving journalists a tour of the uniquely multicultural Bialik-Rogozin school, Israel's education minister opposes the deportation so the students at risk here have a powerful ally.

KAREN TAL:  I don't care if this country wants to close the sky and don't let nobody come to Israel. It's OK from my point of view. But once you bring people and you create phenomena you should take the responsibility. It's not a bad word, responsibility.

With the government divided over what to do with the kids it kept delaying the deportation, then late last year a partial about-face. 800 of the children would be allowed to stay 400 would still be deported.

ROTEM ILAN:  When we began this struggle all these children that faced deportation, now not only half of them don't face deportation they're also going to be citizens in this country. This is an unbelievable achievement. It's even more unbelievable if you think who the interior minister is and I can promise you that this minister does not want any of these children to get citizenship. This part is a victory. Yet I do not understand and do not accept why 400 children should stay outside our arrangements.

The threat of deportation takes is very real for Charlotte. In order to stay in Israel a child needs to be at least five years old and enrolled in year 1 or higher but Charlotte is still in kindergarten.

KAREN TAL:  For now I know that 120 students if the government will not change their decision, almost 70 per cent will get illegal status and 30 per cent should be deported and I hope it will not happen because I am a mother and I have two daughters. Can I say which one of them I love most? I love both of them.

The interior minister and his supporters are also unhappy.

BINYAMIN BABAYOFF (Translation):  I don’t think it is a just compromise, the government is accepting it because of all the leftists creating a huge outcry. I am sure that if all these illegal immigrants and foreign workers lived in the leftists’ neighbourhoods, then they would be making a much bigger outcry, louder than it is today.

Tonight will be the first night of an eight-day Jewish festival, Hanuka the Festival of Lights. At the Bialik-Rogozin school non-Jewish children also prepare to celebrate and after night-fall Binyamin Babayoff and his family enjoyed their own Hanuka celebration.

REPORTER:  Isn't it possible that these children could be good Israeli citizens?

BINYAMIN BABAYOFF (Translation):  I have no doubt that they can contribute, they may be good people, some of their children are lovely but you came here and your time has expired. Don’t outstay your welcome it’s not nice, not honourable.  Go back where you came from.